But it often rhymes

 We often say that history repeats itself. Although the past is never dead (it's not even past), thinking of history as simple repitition misses the complexities of place, time, and human contingency. Seasons return, trends emerge. Much about our lives forms a pattern, a cycle. Despite our sincerest hopes, folly and even evils that we thought had been overcome remain. But so do beauty and kindness.

History doesn't repeat itself. As Baldwin wrote, "History is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history. If we pretend otherwise, we are literally criminals.”